Child Sex Tourism (CST) in Sri Lanka
Recently the Sri Lankan Tourist Board & UNICEF launched the ‘Zero Tolerance for Child Sex Tourism’ campaign in Sri Lanka.
CST rarely happens cos a 'tourist' looking for sex happen upon a child & offers him/her a gift in return for the favour – though it apparently does. It’s a wide-scale problem cos of the commercial nature it has taken – a ‘business’ run by a person ‘employing’ children & selling them off with a tidy commission for himself. There are even employees to ‘market’ the children. Apparently there are websites where paedophiles can actually ‘order’ children –by colour, height, age–I can’t verify that at this point though. There isn’t much that gets more twisted than this!
SL Stats: 100,000 children (6-14 yrs) are kept in brothels; an additional 5,000 children (10-18 years) work in tourist areas. (Sourced NCMEC)
The 'Zero Tolerance' campaigns through TV/radio ads(see pic), billboards, banners, car stickers, flyers, in-flight mags & disembarkation cards which publicize the msg. Well, kudos for the initiative. But, is it enough?
To see these ads, banners, etc one must already be in SL; to see the in-flight magazines one must already be in-flight! Would a paedophile read the notice & get off the flight or take a return flight back or just be extra careful? It is an underground trade after all! And how many peoples would arrive for a sunny holiday & suddenly be tempted to use a child for sex?
Realistically, without the poverty issue being resolved it’s unlikely there’ll be a significant change. CST is an underground trade – and will continue to be so. Skills training is catching around fast so there is hope!
Other Do-ables:
1. A tip-off system - tip offs to authorities who act IMMEDIATELY
2. Ban paedophiles. How? Stamping a holiday visa on arrival may encourage tourism, but it also encourages convicted paedophiles (either in their native countries or elsewhere). Technology which link international offender databases do exist. Scan a passport – scroll down past sexual offences – & wave him bye-bye!
3. Most importantly - empowering children. As Yasmin Haque (SL Unicef) said– “
We…hope…the children…are able to say ‘no’…that they feel safe in saying ‘no’ to being pulled into the sex industry.” (my emphasis)The ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign needs to be commended for drawing attention to the issue. But we need MORE. Fast. Where are the funds? How about the private sector?
How much would it cost SL to gain access to such technology?
How much would it cost SL in the loss of childhoods? In traumatized future generations?
Must we sell our children to boost our economy?
8 comments:
// 100,000 children (6-14 yrs) are kept in brothels // This sound little unbelievable. Isn’t it? Do we really have that much brothels in Sri Lanka?
If that number is correct, then we should have at least 10 fold of adult prostitutes in brothels in reality. That makes around 5% - 8% population in Sri Lanka prostitutes.
// 5,000 children (10-18 years) work in tourist areas// that is quite possible.
I got these stats off the NCMEC figures - so I can't say for sure.
But I don't think when they say 'brothels' they mean actual 'houses' sorta thing with children kept as prostitutes. It's widely known that there are hotels in SL that exploit children thru third parties - paedophiles know which hotels would cater to their needs..these would be taken as 'brothels' too in the stats since they do 'sell' children and use that business to rake in a certain class of clients.
'Tourist areas' in contrast means general places like beaches - where one needs to go pick up a child or do the 'transaction' with a pimp - but there isn't a specific 'place' as such to pin point them to.
Either way, even 5000 children is too many.
IMO, even ONE child is one too many!
You are a very passionate person. I like the way you write.
Plz keep posting - I love visiting this blog.
Brothels are names for places where people provide sex. But there are many more places and ways in which sex is sold. I work in an area where people patronise sex. I hear stories so strange, of mothers bringing daughters for sex. Of poliece officers being paid for letting the joints stay open. Of when and where vans come and drop off women at residences. About vehicles loaded with prostitutes and all the people do is make a pick. So much. down marine drive and kolpetty sea side almost every litttle hotel and inn is a whore house. Everyone knows that. Strange thing is some parliamentary members were trying to legalize sex industry. what are the pros and cons of that?
Prostitues above the Consenting age is one thing. Child Prostitues is another. As Manshark point out, the main solution to reduce most both is to eliviate poverty.
Till we do that, CST must be stopped in other means. Those are very valuable suggetions, unfortunately the effort put in by the Authorities will be very little with the prevailing Country Situation. If we could get the Authorities to go after the well known pimps, the situation could be controlled. However, very unlikely as they would be a Policeman, Palimentarian and a GA on their roll.
After that we need to get rid of all those "Chinks" on the Streets! Down with them I say!
THANK YOU Chaar~max for that - exactly what I was going to say to Anonymous' comment - prositution (legal or not) is a completely different issue to CST!
Nevertheless, Anonymous, to address the arguments for legalising prostitution I suspect they run similar to legalising abortion - it opens the door for fundamental rights to be addressed of those engaged in the activity. By illegalising it and driving it underground (cos as you've acknowledged it's very much a part of the current society in SL) the women are left with no policing, no rights. However, the legalising it should be done with enough policing to make sure that forced prostitution does not take place.
THe arguments against would be moral/ cultural/ religious based and I'd rather not waste my time harping on about arguments that have been repeated over and over again already!
Yes. Manshark . I agree with you too.. You said the same thing i wanted to tell Anon too.
i'm so glad you posted this article because my up coming book titled "The Fairy Dance" happens to be on this very subject.
more power to you for writing this article manshark... i really think we should be doing more to help those kids.
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